Recruiting the Candidate: Now Playing at a Theatre Near You

Recently,
I found myself in a movie theater in the Silicon Hills of Austin, Texas.
Before the previews, along with the usual "movie trivia" frames
and dancing popcorn, a full-screen advertisement for local high tech
jobs appeared. This recruiting effort, however, paled in comparison
to a recent article I read on "drive-by" recruiting whereby
billboard trucks purportedly cruise through town and occasionally park
in front of competitors’ offices.

The game
industry is, indeed, a competitive one, and quality talent is vital
to success. So, how do you appeal to the quality candidates? Rather
than hustle HR to the local theater or send them rollerblading down
the street with a bullhorn and a sandwich board, in this article we
will address consistent means of attracting ideal candidates to your
company via advertising, company branding, unique hiring ideas, and
professional search firms.

Advertising

In
Game Industry Media. Placing job want ads remains a popular recruiting
method. With the advent of the Internet and the growth of the game industry
media, game companies can get their ads in front of their target market
quickly and effectively. Business-oriented game industry publications
like Gamasutra and GIGnews.com cater to the business end of the game
industry versus just the game enthusiast. Job ads in these sorts of
online magazines, paired with their subscription email updates, can
produce immediate results in terms of getting the word out about your
job openings. Moreover, posting your job ads online makes it easy for
friends to email job opening information to their other job seeking
friends.

Another
means of advertising in game industry media is via articles and tutorials.
Contact game industry publications and volunteer yourself or someone
from your company to write an article. Don’t bother about how much you’ll
get paid for it; that’s not the point. Your payment will be the free
exposure your company receives. Publications are always looking for
content. Technical articles, in particular, are a sure-fire way of getting
your company name and contact info in front of thousands of potential
recruits.

On
Your Website. To paraphrase an old Hormel chili ad "How long
has it been since you’ve updated your website’s job page? Well, that’s
too long." You should be using your company website to advertise
job openings, as well. But don’t expect results by simply throwing a
job description on your "job opportunities" page. Your jobs
page should be designed with an eye toward bringing qualified people
-- even those not actively seeking a job -- to visit your site on a
regular basis. For example, your job page should provide information
on your corporate culture with features such as current employee profiles,
company news, tips, and resources. You can keep them coming back by
offering a "subscription" email for notification of new job
postings, tips and resource additions, code releases, company news,
etc. Another device for getting potential recruits to your site is to
do something on the your site that has "the dancing baby"
effect. We all remember receiving "the dancing baby" email.
And off we clicked to the Burning Pixel Productions site. Lure potential
recruits to your site by creating the game industry’s "dancing
baby." But be sure you don’t weigh down your entire site with slow
loading graphics and script. Don’t make it a challenge to get to your
jobs page. Save the real challenges for the code test.

Company
Branding

Why do
certain companies receive a constant influx of qualified candidates?
In short, they give good PR. The best recruiting tool is to become a
talked about place to work. If you’re looking for new hires, your company
should be marketing its corporate culture as much as your latest game.
Does your company offer unique employee benefits? I recall seeing a
news story recently on a company in Silicon Valley that allows employees
to sleep on the job – even providing designated sleeping areas (including
tents!). The company reported markedly increased productivity by allowing
these afternoon naps. Every employee interviewed for this news piece
positively beamed about his job and employer. The media is always looking
for interesting stories to break the monotony of stock prices and mergers.
Does your company offer unique benefits? If so, let the media know.
A consistent PR and marketing strategy to develop an employment "brand"
is one of the most effective ways to recruit.

And, keep
in mind, even if your story isn’t picked up by the media, just like
a good movie or a restaurant, a company’s image can be built through
word-of-mouth advertising. Things like allowing dogs at work, offering
flextime hours, and charitable endeavors help generate good buzz about
your company. Give your current employees something to brag about.

Unique
Hiring Ideas

Games
are made by teams and genuine team loyalty frequently results from time
spent together in "crunch mode." In a tight market like the
game industry, particularly when searching for qualified programmers,
companies should consider hiring "package deals." Package
deals can range from two people to an entire team. One recruiter recently
worked with a team considering a move from a major game developer. The
team appointed one person to speak for them and he made it clear they
would only leave as a team. A new game developer who had just received
funding retained the recruiter to help put their new team together.
She presented the team looking for a new gig with the newly funded developer.
Based on the team’s past work, the new developer hired the team intact.
Not only was recruiting time shortened considerably, but the company
also lost no down time while the team established a working rapport.

Variations
on the team theme, of course, are hiring the boss, the mentor, the sibling,
spouse or significant other. This could be particularly valuable recruiting
tool if you are recruiting in an area that is a growing, versus established,
game community, such as Utah or Nevada game companies trying to recruit
California talent. Of course, I am not advocating simply making up previously
non-existent positions. "Why, yes. Your spouse would be perfect
as our new West Coast Children’s Media Para-Liason." But if a programmer
you really want has a wife with sales and marketing background, keep
the wife’s potential as an employee in mind as well. Many deals have
fallen through simply because a candidate’s spouse didn’t want to move
to a new town and try to find a new job.

Professional
Search Firms

Headhunter.
Executive search consultant. Job placement specialist. Demon seed. Along
with lawyers and used car salesmen, recruiters are often the people
that people just love to hate. Admittedly, there are unprofessional
recruiters in almost every industry, including the game industry, just
as there are unprofessional members in every profession. But an experienced,
ethical, and competent recruiter can mean the difference between your
dream candidate and no candidate at all.

Your HR
department may receive hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes for every
position from secretary to CFO. A qualified resume for that PSX programmer
you’ve been seeking for months on end probably landed somewhere in that
pile where it remained until the busy HR staff had the time to sort
and distribute to the appropriate hiring manager. These folks get tons
of calls and inquiries and there is just so much time in a day. Search
firms can help your HR departments and hiring managers cut to the chase
with immediate access to a database of resumes and contacts to quickly
focus in on qualified candidates for your particular search. A good
recruiting firm should be able to provide the best candidates in the
shortest amount of time.

So, how
do you find a good recruiting firm? The best way is by word of mouth.
Generally speaking, the good ones should have established a reputation
in the game industry. If you’re thinking of looking for a new job, ask
industry colleagues. Well-established recruiters frequently appear as
contributors in game industry publications such as Gamasutra, GIGnews.com,
etc. You can also do a web search for recruiters. A Yahoo! Search for
"game jobs" or game recruiters" would be a good start.
Visit the recruiters’ website. Is it professional? Does it give you
information about the firm? You can also find recruiters at conferences
such as GDC.

Ongoing
Process

Don’t
make a strategically parked truck or a movie theater ad the sum total
of your recruiting program. Thoughtful recruiting should be an ongoing
process. Even if you’re not looking for an animator today, doesn’t mean
the best animator on your team won’t walk into your office tomorrow
and announce his intentions to leave for a Tibetan journey to find his
true soul’ s path. Maintaining an updated and informative website, keeping
your name circulating via game industry articles and PR, and establishing
a relationship with an external recruiting firm can help prevent future
down time.

Marc
Mencher is a software engineer by training and worked for game companies
like Spectrum Holobyte and 3DO, before founding Virtual Search, a game
industry recruiting firm. Marc's articles have been featured in Gamasutra,
GameWEEK, GIG, and other industry publications. You can contact
Marc directly at [email protected]
or 800.779.3334. Visit the Virtual Search website for more game industry
jobs information at www.vsearch.com